A creation from the Yves Saint Laurent exhibition at the VMFA (Photo by Susan Winiecki)
“Yves Saint Laurent: The Perfection of Style” at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is more than a collection of 100 exquisite garments designed by one of history’s most radical and influential fashion designers. It is also an examination of the societal changes that have occurred between 1960 and today, with Saint Laurent’s designs serving as cultural touchstones. From the trapeze dress to the trench coat, to women’s pantsuits and the introduction of designer ready-to-wear, Saint Laurent transformed women’s fashion forever, famously proclaiming, “You no longer need to be rich to have style.”
On display from May 6 through Aug. 27, the comprehensive exhibition makes its only stop on the East Coast at the VMFA. Organized by the Seattle Art Museum in partnership with the Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent in Paris, it draws on the extensive collection of garments, sketches, fabrics, photos, accessories and other objects housed at the foundation's headquarters.
“[Saint Laurent] was not just interested in the aesthetics,” explains Olivier Flaviano, director of the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris, which will open in early October. “He thought he had a social mission.”
Saint Laurent was the first designer to regularly use models of color in his fashion shows. He created ready-to-wear fashions to make style more accessible to the masses who could not afford one-of-a-kind, haute couture designs. He drew on non-Western fashion influences regularly. And he introduced the pantsuit for women, most famously with “Le Smoking” in 1966, his feminine riff on the traditional men’s tuxedo.
“He took utilitarian garments — the pea coat worn by sailors, the trench coat from the military, the safari jacket and the pantsuit … and made them feminine,” Flaviano says. “He wanted women to feel comfortable in their clothes.”
A board featuring sketches and fabric samples from one of the designer's collections (Photo by Susan Winiecki)
The exhibition is arranged chronologically, opening with a charming collection of paper dolls — complete with their own fashion show program — that Saint Laurent created as a child. It follows his early rise in Parisian haute couture, beginning with his stint as assistant to Christian Dior. When Dior died in 1957, Saint Laurent became the head designer for the House of Dior. He was only 21. He opened his own couture house just five years later.
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Some of Saint Laurent's paper dolls (Photo by Susan Winiecki)
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Photo by Susan Winiecki
Considered one of the greatest couturiers of all time, Saint Laurent was equally devoted to making his designs available through lower-priced, ready-to-wear apparel. He embraced the idea of separates, encouraging women to create their own look with his designs. “One of his most famous quotes is, ‘Fashion fades, style is eternal,’ ” Flaviano says.
Most of the garments on display are prototypes from Saint Laurent’s atelier. Flaviano explains that Saint Laurent, and his partner, Pierre Bergé, began archiving Saint Laurent's designs in 1964, preserving a few garments from each collection. “Nobody did that before,” he says. “Prior to that they were given to the models as a form of payment, or sold. There was no sense of heritage.”
Today, the foundation’s collection comprises more than 20,000 items of clothing, accessories, drawings and objets. Saint Laurent saved sketches, fabric samples, dress forms of clients, photos and every press clipping from every collection he released.
“The Perfection of Style” would not be possible without such foresight. When Saint Laurent died in 2008, Flaviano says Bergé made one final discovery — a box full of the paper dolls that open the exhibition.
“Yves Saint Laurent: The Perfection of Style” runs May 6 through Aug. 27 at the VMFA. Tickets are $22 for adults; $18 seniors; $10 for students and children over 6; and free for members. Reserve tickets here.
